The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display device which includes non-display pixels which are called dummy pixels in general.
In a liquid crystal display device, a large number of pixels are formed on liquid-crystal-side surfaces of respective substrates which are arranged to face each other in an opposed manner with liquid crystal sandwiched therebetween, and a liquid crystal display part (liquid crystal display region) is formed by a mass of these pixels.
Each pixel is, for example, constituted of a switching element (thin film transistor) which is formed in a region surrounded by gate signal lines which extend in the x direction and are arranged in parallel in the y direction and drain signal lines which extend in the y direction and are arranged in parallel in the x direction and is turned on in response to a gate signal from the gate signal line, a pixel electrode to which a video signal line is supplied from the drain signal line via the turned-on switching element, and a reference electrode which generates an electric field between the reference electrode and the pixel electrode.
In performing the display driving in a liquid crystal display part having such pixels, pixel rows which are formed along the respective gate signal lines are sequentially selected by sequentially supplying (scanning) gate signals to the respective gate signal lines, and video signals are supplied to the respective pixels of the selected pixel row via each drain signal line in conformity with such timing. In this case, each pixel to which the video signal is supplied is configured to hold a voltage corresponding to the video signal in the pixel electrode due to a capacitive element or parasitic capacitance stored in the pixel until the next signal is supplied.
However, in such a constitution, the difference in a capacitance value, the disturbance of the orientation of the liquid crystal or the like is generated in respective pixels in an uppermost pixel row or a lowermost pixel row and hence, there appears a phenomenon in which the display differs from a display of another pixel.
Here, there has been known a technique which covers the respective pixels in the uppermost pixel row and the lowermost pixel row with a light blocking film thus constituting these respective pixels as dummy pixels which do not contribute to the display.
The detail of the dummy pixels is disclosed in the following    Patent Document 1 or Patent Document 2, for example.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-2005-241778 (corresponding US application; US2005/0184980A1)    Patent Document 2: JP-A-11-52427